Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Show Prep 072606: Can Hispanics Be Trusted Border Patrol Agents?

And, though wapo would rather be beaten bloody than reveal this, these corrupt officers tend more often than not to share Hispanic surnames? Are you as shocked as I am?

SAN DIEGO -- Federal law enforcement officials are investigating a series of bribery and smuggling cases in what they fear is a sign of increased corruption among officers who patrol the Mexican border.

Two brothers who worked for the U.S. Border Patrol disappeared in June while under investigation for smuggling drugs and immigrants, and are believed to have fled to Mexico. In the past month, two agents from Customs and Border Protection, which guards border checkpoints, were indicted for taking bribes to allow illegal immigrants to enter the United States. And earlier this month, two Border Patrol supervisory agents pleaded guilty to accepting nearly $200,000 in payoffs to release smugglers and illegal immigrants who had been detained.

In trying to reconcile two dramatically different bills addressing illegal immigration, Congress is in danger of forgetting an important lesson of life on the southern U.S. border: whatever legislators do has to recognize the reality on the ground. In part, that means understanding that the millions of crossings every year by illegal aliens will be curbed only if the problem can be made manageable. Right now, with Border Patrol agents trying to apprehend potential busboys and gardeners along with terrorists and gang members, the problem is too big for any law enforcement agency in a democratic society to tackle.

In addition to all of the other challenges Border Patrol agents face, there is growing evidence that more of them are falling prey to the temptations of bribery and corruption, even though only 1 out of 30 applicants to the force is accepted after a rigorous screening. Just this month, two Border Patrol supervisors pleaded guilty to accepting more than $186,000 in payoffs in exchange for releasing immigrant smugglers from federal custody. In June brothers Raul and Fidel Villarreal, both Border Patrol agents, disappeared into Mexico after investigators began to suspect they were smuggling drugs and immigrants.

Federal agents here in Arizona report that investigators have uncovered many improper relationships between Border Patrol personnel and Mexican women who are illegally in the U.S. "There is tremendous temptation for someone who is less than honest to work with [smugglers]," Andrew Black, an FBI agent with the Border Corruption Task Force in San Diego, told the Washington Post. "Someone who is working the border can make their salary in a couple of nights."

An enterprising reader of Vdare googled his way to fame and fortune...

The Journal has yet another open borders article up today, this one by John Fund. Now they’re saying that enforcement won’t work because the Border Patrol is all corrupt.[JOHN FUND ON THE TRAIL Borderline Insanity, July 24, 2006, online for free.]

So I did a Google: Border Patrol + corruption. These are ALL the names of corrupt BP agents that I gleaned from the first 3 pages or so of hits:

Noticing a pattern? This is not selective sampling. Verify it if you want. I couldn’t find a picture of Mr. Duque. I figured his surname was French. But a glimpse at DexOnline showed that nearly everyone in Chicago with this surname had a Spanish given name.

(San Diego) An illegal immigrant pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to smuggle people into the United States while working as a Border Patrol agent, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Oscar Antonio Ortiz, 28, admitted to conspiring to smuggle at least 100 people when assigned to the Border Patrol's El Cajon station, east of San Diego. He also pleaded guilty to making a false claim to U.S. citizenship.

Ortiz applied for the Border Patrol job in 2001 with a fake birth certificate that said he was born in Chicago even though he is a Mexican citizen who was born in Tijuana, Mexico, according to the federal complaint. He resigned after his arrest in August.

The corruption of Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and U.S.Customs Service employees along the Southwest border by drug traffickersis a serious and continuing threat. Some of these employees have waveddrug loads through ports of entry, coordinated the movement of drugsacross the border, transported drugs past Border Patrol checkpoints,sold drugs, and revealed drug intelligence information. Both INS andCustoms have policies and procedures to help ensure the integrity oftheir employees. However, neither agency is taking full advantage of itspolicies, procedures, and the lessons to be learned from closedcorruption cases to address the rising threat of employee corruption onthe Southwest border. For example, although the agencies generallycompleted background investigations for new hires by the end of theirfirst year on the job, reinvestigations were typically overdue, in somecases by as much as three years.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent arrested earlier this month on a drug smuggling charge fled to Colombia 15 years ago to avoid trial in a previous drug smuggling case, federal court records show.Fernando Arango, who worked as an inspector at the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales, Ariz., was arrested Oct. 2, after he accepted a $50,000 bribe in a cocaine sting at the port, according to a complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's office.Prosecutors highlighted the past felony charges while arguing that Arango was a flight risk during a detention hearing last Friday in U.S. District Court in Tucson.Arango was charged with a felony marijuana violation in Polk County, Fla., in 1989, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Lacey told the court during the hearing. Arango then fled to Colombia and resurfaced 10 years later, working as a police informant in Florida. Law enforcement officials he worked with helped him obtain a job with Customs and Border Protection, Lacey said.

This is what Border Patrol agents were told in a January 2004 memo obtained by Judicial Watch in May 2005, entitled “White House Approved Talking Points.” At the time the memo was crafted, President Bush had just announced a new “temporary worker program” for illegal immigrants. If the president’s initiative were to have negative repercussions, Bush administration officials seemingly reasoned, the public must not know.

This is hardly the stuff of open, honest and responsible government.

The memo, obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, relates to a Border Patrol survey initiated in January 2004. Following a high-profile speech by the President on January 7, where he floated what amounted to an amnesty program for illegal immigrants, Border Patrol agents began asking randomly chosen illegals caught at the border if they were trying to cross because of the president’s proposal.

In less than three weeks the Bush administration abruptly shut down the survey. Border Patrol agents were ordered not to discuss its early findings with the press. The government, of course, never issued a report on the survey or its findings.

Judicial Watch immediately filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Homeland Security to get to the truth in the matter. When Homeland Security resisted, we sued, forcing the release of 1,000 documents, including the aforementioned talking points memo. In reviewing this information, it is easy to see why the Bush administration was adamant about keeping the surveys secret.

Here are some more disturbing survey findings the Bush administration tried to keep from you:

1. President Bush’s “temporary guest worker” program was broadly interpreted as an amnesty program by illegal immigrants from Mexico. 2. Early results from the Border Patrol survey indicated President Bush’s proposal did, in fact, lure greater numbers of illegal immigrants to the U.S. Approximately 45% of respondents crossed illegally based upon rumors of a Bush amnesty program. 3. Approximately 63% received Mexican government or media information supporting the notion of a Bush administration amnesty program. 4. When asked if they would seek amnesty if offered, 80% of apprehended illegal immigrants answered, “yes.” 5. More than 60% of those apprehended had previously entered the United States illegally, some as many as six times. 6. Approximately 66% desired to petition for family members to join them in the United States.

The survey data, when combined with anecdotal remarks, presents a clear picture of the chaotic state of our nation’s borders and the likely damaging results of the president’s amnesty proposal. Illegal immigrants are crossing our borders again and again without fear of any repercussions. They intend on staying in perpetuity, and bringing their friends and families with them. Some, undoubtedly, are conspiring to do us harm.

In his January 7 speech to the nation, President Bush told the American people that first and foremost, “America must protect its borders.” Following the attacks of September 11, he said, “This duty of the federal government has become even more urgent.”

While correctly identifying the problem, the president’s solution is baffling. How can we ensure border security while, at the same time, allowing illegal immigrants to cross our borders and then providing them with pseudo-citizenship when they get here?

The Bush administration stonewalled Judicial Watch in court for almost a year to make sure the negative impact of the president’s proposed amnesty program would remain a well-kept secret from the American people. Bush administration officials withheld information from the American people they knew would be embarrassing.

Well, now the truth is out.

When the lies and dishonesty trickle down from the very top it takes a lot of chutzpah to damn those below when the bosses are in many ways much worse.